It was not the first time that Balkan
borders were re-drawn but, with the creation of Bulgaria, extending
all the way to lake Ohrid, a few taboos were broken. A new state was
created, Russia was introduced as a major player and the Sick Man of
Europe (the Ottoman Empire) was in death throes. It also generated a
new problem, the Macedonian one. The treaty of Berlin sought to
restore the balance but to no avail. The inexorable germination of
the nationalistic ideal has commenced. When the Treaty placed
Bosnia-Herzegovina under Austro-Hungarian administration and allowed
Habsburg garrisons to camp inside Serbia (effectively severing it
from Montenegro) - the seeds of discontent blossomed into the evil
flowers of violence.
No one cared what the local populace had to say. The Austrian
brought roads and railways and modern mining and forestry and
industry to this hitherto European backwater. Reversing the Ottoman
infliction was no mean feat. Yet, the Austrians chose to rule by
division, to motivate through hate and to buy the love of their
subjects rather than to earn it.
They befriended the Moslem landlords and pitted the Serbs against
each across a denominational divide. This volatile state of affairs
was only aggravated by the abolition in 1881 of the Military
Frontier, which brought hundreds of thousands of Serbs into the
remit of an increasingly and virulently nationalistic Croatia.
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